Faculty

Director

Melissa R. Root, Assistant Professor
BA, Occidental College
MA, University of Denver

Currently at work writing her dissertation on Zimbabwean novelist Yvonne Vera, Melissa is a PhD candidate in English at the University of Denver. She has taught at DU and Arapahoe Community College prior to her work at Naropa. Before becoming director, Melissa served as associate director of the Naropa Writing Center for four years. She teaches writing pedagogy and Writing Seminar II: Art of the Scholar.

Michelle Naka Pierce, Associate Professor
BA, University of New Mexico
MA, University of New Mexico, with distinction
MFA, Naropa University

Born in Tokyo, Japan, her mother's homeland, Michelle Naka Pierce has taught courses in poetry, creative nonfiction, composition, and pedagogy at Sakuragaoka koko in Yokohama, the University of New Mexico, the Workshop for Language and Thinking at Bard College, and Naropa University. She is the author of two books of experimental poetry: Beloved Integer (2007) and Tri/Via (2003), co-written with Veronica Corpuz. Former director of the NWC from 2000-07, she co-developed the curriculum for Writing Seminar I and II for the Core and teaches poetry workshops for Writing and Poetics.